The ball dropped at midnight and was scored a hit because nobody touched it.

That rule probably should be changed.

Orioles business in January includes trying to get their arbitration-eligible players under contract before next Thursday’s deadline for exchanging salary figures. Hearings will begin later this month and run into February.

The two sides can continue to negotiate, but a panel will decide the salary if an agreement isn’t reached. Only the figures submitted will be considered.

Some roster moves adjusted the list of eligibles to 11: Taylor Ward, Shane Baz, Ryan Mountcastle, Trevor Rogers, Tyler Wells, Adley Rutschman, Dean Kremer, Kyle Bradish, Gunnar Henderson, Keegan Akin and Yennier Cano. Ward and Baz are the newcomers, with MLBTradeRumors.com projecting their salaries at $13.7 million and $3.1 million, respectively.

The 2025-26 international signing period for amateur free agents begins on Jan. 15. Teams usually announce the class and bonuses distributed.

President of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias will keep working to upgrade the roster. In January 2025, the Orioles signed veteran starter Charlie Morton, reliever Andrew Kittredge and outfielder Dylan Carlson and traded for shortstop Luis Vázquez. The following month brought outfielder Ramón Laureano in free agency.

Some of these moves worked out better than the others.

Any day now, we should find out what happened to left-hander Josh Walker and outfielder Will Robertson after they were designated for assignment. The Walker transaction happened on Dec. 19.

Elias and company are looking ahead, an understandable desire to change the view after a last-place finish in 2025. But hey, it wasn’t all bad.

Trevor Rogers saved his career, with plenty of assistance.

Rogers came to the Orioles in a 2024 deadline trade with the Marlins that cost them outfielder Kyle Stowers and infielder Connor Norby. He posted a 7.11 ERA in four starts and was optioned, with no promises of a quick reset. He was down there to fix the glitch.

A knee injury forced him on the injured list to begin the 2025 season and he didn’t return to the Orioles until serving as the 27^th man for Game 2 of a May 24 doubleheader in Boston. The result was two hits allowed in 6 1/3 scoreless innings, a return trip to Triple-A Norfolk and a reappearance on June 18.

He didn’t leave again.

Rogers had a 1.35 ERA going into the last of his 18 starts. He worked at least six innings in 10 consecutive appearances. He allowed two runs or fewer in 15 starts in a row and opponents batted .180/.240/.263 against him over the course of the season. He was named Most Valuable Oriole, finishing 9-3 with a 1.81 ERA and 0.903 WHIP and receiving my fifth-place vote in American League Cy Young balloting.

The same guy who seemed to be on the wrong end of a lopsided trade led the Orioles with a 5.5 bWAR and will break camp in the upper portion of the rotation.  

Outfielder Dylan Beavers and catcher Samuel Basallo earned their promotions a day apart in August, a wonderful distraction from one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history.

The next hotly anticipated debut probably won’t reach the same level as Basallo, who doubled down on the excitement of his arrival by receiving an eight-year, $67 million extension with an option for 2034.

It came five days after his contract was selected from Norfolk. He was only 21 years old.  

He was an exception to the type of business usually done in Baltimore.

Basallo’s deal included escalators based on awards and playing time behind the plate that could increase it to a maximum of $88.5 million. He also received a $5 million signing bonus.

Basallo and Beavers recorded multiple walk-off RBIs, marking the first time in Orioles history that two rookies accomplished the feat in the same season.

Beavers became the second player in Orioles history with a walk-off homer in the team's final regular-season home game, along with Mickey Tettleton on Oct. 3, 1990 against the Blue Jays.

Proving again that it’s a small baseball world, Beavers is the first major league rookie to accomplish the feat since Ward in 2018 with the Angels.

Also memorable was Basallo’s walk-off home run against Dodgers closer Tanner Scott on Sept. 5. Henry Urrutia was the last Orioles player whose first Camden Yards home run was a walk-off, on Aug. 19, 2015 against the Mets. Basallo barreled a 98.7 mph fastball and drove it 433 feet at 109.3 mph.

The following night, Yoshinobu Yamamoto no-hit the Orioles for 8 2/3 innings and led 3-0 before Jackson Holliday homered. The rallied continued and Emmanuel Rivera singled in two runs for an improbable 4-3 win, on the same night that the Orioles celebrated the 30^th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games streak.

Brandon Young retired the first 23 Astros on Aug. 15 in Houston before mishandling Ramón Urías slow roller with two outs in the eighth inning, resulting in an infield hit and error. Young earned his first major win in his 11th career start.

You just never know. Young entered the game with a 6.70 ERA.

“I thought I could make the play,” Young told reporters afterward. “I got there in time. I think I had a little more time to maybe take a step and make a better throw. I obviously rushed it, yanked it. It sucks. Definitely want it back.”

Young also threw an immaculate inning, three strikeouts on nine pitches, on July 8 versus the Mets. He was the fifth Oriole to do it and first since Kevin Gausman in 2018.

B.J. Ryan (1999), Mike Mussina, (1998) and Jimmy Key (1998) are the other Orioles.

Young didn’t realize it until catcher Chadwick Tromp passed along the news in the clubhouse.

“Significant?” Young said. “Yeah. Pretty cool, man. Pretty cool.”

Tyler O’Neill homered on his sixth consecutive Opening Day to extend his major league record. The rest of his season didn’t live up to the hype, but the streak is fun to follow.

“Yeah, it’s there. It’s there, for sure,” O’Neill said afterward. “Just not trying to make too much of it.”

That’s why we’re here.

The first game of the season didn’t set the anticipated tone. The Orioles blew out the eventual American League pennant-winning Blue Jays 12-2 at Rogers Centre. Rutschman and Cedric Mullins both homered twice.

Prior to 2025, only two Orioles in franchise history had multi-homer games on Opening Day -  Sam Horn on April 9, 1990 in Kansas City and Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson on April 6, 1973 against the Brewers. Mullins joined Horn as the only players in club history with at least five RBIs in the opener, and Rutschman joined Don Baylor as the only players in the majors since 1900 to collect 10 hits in their first three career Opening Day games.

The Orioles won their home opener on March 31, defeating the Red Sox 8-5 and improving their record to 48-24 (.676) in the first game played in Baltimore. That’s the second-highest winning percentage in the majors since 1954 behind the Yankees (50-22, .694).

That would have been a good place to stop.

The Orioles stole 121 bases, their highest total since swiping 144 in 2007. Gunnar Henderson at 24 years, 89 days, became the youngest player in team history to steal at least 30. Colton Cowser went 14-for-14 to set an Orioles record. Al Smith was 9-for-9 in 1963, the year that I was born.

Coincidence? Most likely.

Henderson and Holliday became the fifth shortstop/second base duo under 25 years old in major league history to each get on base at least 200 times in the same season.

Holliday played in 149 games, and avoiding the injured list on this team warranted a statue. Perhaps it can be part of the renovations.

Bradish and Wells made it back from ligament-reconstructive elbow surgeries and should be key contributors this year. Bradish probably would be the Opening Day starter if the season began today, though Rogers could make a pretty strong argument.

Félix Bautista’s return from Tommy John surgery should be celebrated, except the ensuing procedure to repair his labrum and rotator cuff that probably will cost him most of the 2026 season put a real damper on it.

Ryan O’Hearn’s first All-Star selection and how much it meant to him was such a bright spot in an otherwise dark season that it should have come with a pair of shades.

The Orioles rallied from a 6-0 deficit after the top of the second inning to defeat the Rays 22-8 on June 27. They were the first team to win by at least 14 runs after trailing by six.

A month later, the Orioles defeated the Rockies 18-0 for the largest margin of victory in a shutout in franchise history, surpassing a 17-0 win over the White Sox on July 27, 1969. They became the first team in the modern era with 12 or more players getting an at-bat in a game and also collecting a hit and scoring a run.